


Mysteries

by bloodandcocoa



Series: Presents [3]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: Christmas fic, Established OT3, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 09:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2846735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodandcocoa/pseuds/bloodandcocoa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Its Christmas time at Silas, and there are presents everywhere! But it doesn't need to be Christmas to give presents and not all presents have to come in wrapping paper. Sometimes the best presents are the ones right in front of you.</p><p>Lots of fluff, and sappiness. Originally started as a one-shot but decided to make it a three-shot, just in time for Christmas!</p><p>Part Three: Laura would've never thought that Carmilla and Danny would ever be interested in someone like her. But she couldn't be more wrong, she couldn't imagine life without them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mysteries

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas (Eve)! Here's my present to you all: the last instalment of the Presents series. It also turned out longer than I had wanted. But that's cool. So this'll probably be my last fic for a while. I'm actually going to spend time with my family instead of holing up in my room frantically trying to write stuff. But don't worry. I have plenty of fics in the works, just not completed. The next few will definitely be long fics, at least as long as Roommate From Hell, so watch out for those. Thanks for reading!
> 
> Cheers!

"Just exactly how many presents did you get me, Carmilla Karnstein?"

Laura Hollis sat amidst a mass of torn wrapping paper and an equal, but seemingly unending mass of Christmas presents. At first she thought it was cute that her girlfriends had listened to her rant about how much she enjoyed tearing paper off gifts and actually used said paper. But now, maybe she regretted it a little bit. Maybe a lot. Especially because they were going have to clean up this mess after.

A plate of freshly baked Christmas cookies were also under the mess somewhere as well. Laura should've just left it on the the bookshelf where it'd be safe, instead of bringing it into the war zone. Half of the delicious baked goods were from Perry, hand delivered in a neat little parcel this morning. Laura had been the one to answer the door at seven-thirty in the morning. The journalism major was also the only one of room 307 to be up at such a ridiculous hour. But the cookies were still warm and filled the room with its sugary scent.

One thing led to another, and Laura soon found herself with her own plate of heavily frosted and sprinkled cookies. Who knew that Easy-Bake oven that she tucked in the bottom of her suitcase would actually come in handy. The smell of freshly baked sugar cookies would eventually wake Danny. Who eagerly scrambled out of bed, upending Carmilla in the process.

Danny Lawrence had a sweet tooth that could rival Laura's. Usually Danny kept it in check with a ridiculous amount of oranges.  _Oranges are sweet too._  Danny protested that one time that she offered Laura a slice of her tasty fruit. Laura turned down the fruit with a look of disdain. Danny didn't give up. Once a week, she'd try to get Laura to eat the fruit, a fruit, any fruit.

Laura smiled fondly at her two girlfriends, she ducked as another wad of wrapping paper shot past her face with far too much force to be humanly possible. Carmilla raised her eyebrows at the tiny human innocently from her perch atop the bed. A candy cane that had been stolen off of the tree was clenched between her teeth. For a vampire who claimed she hated all the fuss over Christmas and the holidays, she did seem to be enjoying herself.

Danny's choice of Christmas candy was a Terry's Chocolate Orange that was roughly the size of her head that Laura bought for her. Oranges and chocolate? Laura knew that her ginger giant would never be able to resist. The pace that Danny was going through the massive chocolate orange was a little alarming though- almost a quarter of the way done and still going strong. Well, as long as Laura didn't have to hold her hair back when her stomach finally decided that a basketball sized chocolate orange was too much.

If you had told the Laura of several months ago that she would be dating two very attractive girls at the same time, one who was a seductive three-hundred year old vampire and the other a bronzed lit TA, she would've called you insane. Well, also if you told her that the dean of her school was actually a bloodsucking vampire who was kidnapping girls to sacrifice to a giant devouring light. But what could you do?

These two girls were complete mysteries to Laura at first. The broody, reclusive roommate who refused to say more than a few words to her in passing and the restrained lit TA who watched her from across the room. They were interesting for sure. But Laura could not for her lifetime, figure either of them out. What drew her to them? Who exactly were they? They were both giant mysteries and as a budding journalist, Laura was determined to find out.

The Laura of today was thankful that she had been so driven to solve these enigmas. If she had thought they were interesting before, they were so much more than that after she got to know them. She was also thankful, well as thankful as one could be about the whole virgin sacrifice thing, of her situation today. If you gave her the choice to go back in time and pick a different university, she wouldn't do it. Silas was her home, now and perhaps forever. She wouldn't trade it for the world, especially since this university gave her these amazing friends and fantastic girlfriends.

Silas University was a welcome change from the overbearing house that she grew up in. Her dad meant well, but a caged bird who could never spread her wings and fly never really knew what being a bird was like. Silas was far from home, far enough that her dad wouldn't come visit her on a whim. Far enough that she could do whatever she pleased with whomever she wanted whenever she wanted. That was enough for her.

Or so she thought.

Maybe what she loved about her girlfriends so much was that they were always pushing her.

_You can do it, Laura._

_Let me show you something new, Cupcake._

Carmilla was always there egging her on. Bad decision?  _Oh please, Cupcake. This is a normal decision for me._

Anytime Laura was unsure of something, Carmilla was there at her side with a gentle smile and advice.  _You don't live to be three-hundred and thirty-four years old without learning a little something._ When it wasn't advice, it was a little bit of encouragement with a brief kiss to the cheek. Carmilla knew that Laura didn't get to go out much when she lived with her dad. And as much as Laura denied it, it became rather evident when Carmilla took Laura to her a concert for one of their first dates.

It wasn't anything extravagant, (Laura insisted that Carmilla wasn't allowed to use her vampiric benefits for date nights or how would she ever compete) just a picnic in the clock tower, followed by the concert for the local symphony. Laura looked so lost and out of place as Carmilla guided her to their seats. And Laura was lost, there was a fair amount of people present and there were all kinds of instruments and people in suits and dresses milling about.

The closest thing to a legitimate symphony that Laura had seen was her high school marching band, which she was a part of. It turned out that the crash cymbals didn't take much talent to play at all.

It wasn't the most exciting thing in the world, Laura knew that Carmilla had seen far more famous symphonies and probably was acquaintances with the composers of the pieces that they were listening to. But to Laura, this was the best symphony she had ever heard, simply because Carmilla was there.

Carmilla wouldn't tell her until much much later into the relationship, but that concert was also her favourite, for the same reasons.

Of course, that was one of Carmilla's safer adventures that Laura took part in. There was the one time that Laura got curious about the Swim Team's locker rooms. There were some rumours floating around that the janitor of the locker rooms was actually a group of Kappa, which Laura asked Carmilla about. The vampire shrugged, she paid no attention to the Swim Team and their Japanese water demon janitors. They had never been of any interest in the past, mainly because they were never in her way.

But of course, Carmilla said nothing about the possible dangers of such an investigation. It wasn't until a campus wide lock down later and a wrestling match with a very irritated, blue Kappa- where Carmilla learned that the strength of an angry Kappa is very nearly equivalent to vampiric strength, did they decide to steer far away from the locker rooms.

At least they confirmed the rumours.

Carmilla was this worldly, daring, all or nothing creature. She firmly believed that everything should be experienced at least once, if not more than once. Recklessness was her strong suit but half of the experience was that rush, the moment of panic. She was the do now, worry about the consequences later. The consequences can meet her undead vampireness and suck it.

She was the  _oh Laura, you haven't done that yet? Let's do it then._  Regardless of how idiotic Laura's idea was at first. Especially if Laura's idea was idiotic. But she was always there at the end to haul Laura back to her feet with  _a let's do it again._

Danny on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Yes, Danny knew about Laura's childhood and how she didn't get to do much because of her dad. It took Danny a while to realize that Laura was right, she had a dad, Danny did not need to become one as well. But it was in Danny's nature to look out for people, for her friends, especially for her girlfriends. Sometimes she couldn't help it, but she was better now.

 _Work hard, play hard._  That was Danny's motto, specifically in that order. She was always sprawled across the bed, nose deep in a text while Laura was hunched over her laptop. Her easy smiles and gentle reassurances were especially welcome when Laura had assignments due and not a lot of time.  _I had that prof last year, I'll see what I can do._  Carmilla had been an excellent influence on Danny it seemed. While Danny was still very much against cheating (Laura was too), it was physically impossible for her to not help her girlfriends. Especially when they needed her.

Especially that one time Carmilla and Laura got lost in the Historical Battles section of the Library after hours. In their defence, it was an accident. They had meant to only get some research on the Brownies who apparently ran all the laundromats on campus. But one thing lead to another, and before they knew it, night had fallen and the doors had slammed shut.

Laura just had this nagging feeling that taking a left at the Romantic Era section was a bad idea. Her feelings were confirmed when they wound up in the middle of a full blown war between the hardcover books and paper backs in the middle the Historical Battles section. The books mutually decided that it was a better idea to try to kill the two intruders rather than to destroy each other. Laura called for back up.

_Omw with SumSoc. ETA: 34 seconds & counting._

A particularly vicious copy of  _Mein Kampf_ was shooting razor sharp pages at Carmilla like it was a gatling gun. Carmilla had taken refuge behind a marble statue of the Duke of Wellington. They were actually quite surprised that the statues and other decorations hadn't come to life and join the battle yet. "Danny just texted me, her and the Summer Society are on their way." No sooner had those words left Laura's mouth, an echoing crash could be heard over the din of the battle.

Danny Lawrence, in all of her war painted glory, stormed into the hall with a torch in one hand and a spear in the other. Her hair was slightly ruffled and there was a small cut on her cheek, but otherwise she looked fine. Actually more than fine, Laura felt her mouth go dry at the sight of Danny shish-kebabing several hardcovers with her spear.

After that incident, Carmilla and Laura were 'grounded' for a week. Which basically meant they grovelled to Danny for a week because she was seriously unimpressed with being interrupted in the middle of a biweekly Summer Society meeting for the third time in a row with a vague emergency text. But she was never one to hold grudges. If her girlfriends needed her, come hell or high water, Danny Lawrence would always be there.

Danny's idea of an adventure was usually something that she had done before, something that she could maintain some semblance of control over. So Laura and begrudgingly, Carmilla, went camping, hiking, cliff diving and a myriad of other strenuously physical activities. Laura would never admit it, but hang-gliding was surprisingly fun.

Carmilla was the gas pedal and Danny was the brakes. You needed both things for a car to function properly. A car that had one but not the other was useless. Somehow they all balanced out and how exactly the universe aligned so that they would meet was a complete mystery. A wonderful mystery, one that Laura didn't quite feel the need to solve quite yet.

"I bought you exactly enough," came Carmilla's cryptic answer.

"Oh, stop spoiling her," Danny chided gently as she shoved another chunk of her chocolate orange into her mouth.

"How about I spoil you instead?" Carmilla was suddenly pressed up behind Danny, her breath dancing faintly against Danny's ear. Smirking as Laura watched with wide eyes, Carmilla grasped Danny's chin and tilted it so that Carmilla could kiss her with such an intensity that it took Laura's breath away.

Laura cleared her throat and they broke apart, Danny looking a little flushed and dazed. Carmilla grinned and licked her lips, "Tastes like chocolate oranges."

"Behave, or I'll make Laura use those furry handcuffs you gave her on you," Danny grumbled, having realized that Carmilla had stolen the chocolate from between her lips.

"Maybe I ought to misbehave instead," Carmilla wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. That earned her a slap to the arm from the ginger.

"Carm...? Danny...?" Laura stared at the open present sitting in front of her lap, mouth falling open. It was an photo album. Inside were a lot of pictures, documenting Laura's life. Each photo was meticulously labeled with a location, date and who was in it. Some of the writing was in a familiar loopy cursive, some of it was in neat script.

Her girlfriends smiled down at her as Laura flipped through the album. Pictures from when her parents were dating- she was a spitting image of her mom. Pictures of their graduation and then wedding. Pictures of a very pregnant Mrs. Hollis. Then pictures of a baby her. A big happy family. Then Laura was growing up. Mom was missing, but her dad was still smiling with her in every picture. As Laura flipped to the last page that had pictures on it, she noticed a there was an additional picture that she didn't remember taking.

It looked like a selfie- Danny was holding the phone. It was the three of them, all curled together in bed. Laura was clearly asleep in between her two girlfriends, face burrowed in Carmilla's neck while Carmilla stared at Danny being a dork. At that moment, Laura felt like she was the luckiest girl in the world.

Silas University was truly a mysterious place. But it was her mystery.


End file.
